New waster company?

[Greg Coffman]

Now, I am a dedicated supporter of New Stirling Arms. But I recently came across this site and their wasters look pretty good. Has anybody had any experience with them?

Arms of Distinction
http://www.armsofdistinction.com/home

[David Kite]

Uh. . .

Granted I have no experience with them, and my opinion is based solely upon my impression of their site, but I am dubious. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and I don't mean to come down too hard on them, but. . .

"in use throughout the HEMA community"? I'm not sure which community they're talking about, but it's not any HEMA community I know. If they're really that popular, I would expect to have heard of them.

In my experience, their products don't look very impressive. Views of their blades are virtually nil, and their hilts look pretty clunky, IMO. The craftsmanship doesn't look up to par with anything I've seen before.

Further, I don't want to dismiss a company's products based solely on their presentation, but their website also looks incredibly thrown together (possibly even this afternoon). They have irrelevant artwork all over the place, where I would expect pictures of their products, and their information isn't well presented. They don't even sound like they know what they're talking about. He has obviously heard the name Joachim Meyer, but if he knows anything beyond that, I'll be surprised.

There is no mention of product dimension, or weight, or that POB he finds so unique to his products. Granted, any item could be made to order, so posting dimensions may not be critical, but it's not something they make very clear, either. There's also nothing about pricing, apart from the $100 average price for a longsword.

There is also nothing about who they are or where they are located, or anything much about them, and what little information they do provide is incredibly vague. Ultimately, I rank them below rennies and SCA, and only moderately above LARPers in terms of skill or even knowledge.

Now, I readily admit that I could be totally wrong about them, and am ready to eat my words if shown to be wrong or premature in my judgements. If you'd like to take the plunge and give them a chance, then good luck, but I'm not sending them any money.

David Kite
ARMA in IN

[Benjamin Smith]

Their pommels almost certainly don't have enough weight to be effective counter-balances. Remember wasters can feel good by being light, as well as by being well balance. Most people don't even know about pivot points, they certainly don't mention them.

They don't know how to spell rapier (rappier on their site).

Second the above statement: throughout the HEMA community, I've never heard of them and I've been doing this since 2000.

Their dussack's look ok, but the grain of the wood isn't in line with the shape of the weapon. If it wasn't so thick I'd think it would break in the middle.

[Michael Olsen]

They don't know how to spell rapier (rappier on their site).

Hi Benjamin,

They explain on the site it is meant to be a training weapon for the 16th century cut and thrust weapon. I assume they mean the weapon shown and named as such in Meyer's 1570 and 1600 works.

So the naming convention is definitely appropriate. Their representation of it, however, may very well be faulty - then again it may be spot on. I sort of doubt that, due to the lack of a complex hilt, but I've never handled one before.

I've emailed the owner and asked both for what groups have purchased and used his products and specifications for the lineup.

Best,

Michael

[Greg Coffman]

Views of their blades are virtually nil, and their hilts look pretty clunky, IMO. The craftsmanship doesn't look up to par with anything I've seen before.

I think their wasters look pretty good. New Stirling Arms doesn't really have pictures of their blades either. But the complexity in the craftsmanship matches NSA as does the ergonomics, and their rapier crosses are even narrower than NSA's. The crosses here are no wider than the handle which matches what we see on actual swords. Their rapier features a metal pommel cap which should provide plenty of balance. I not sure where you are seeing poor craftsmanship.

Their representation of it, however, may very well be faulty - then again it may be spot on. I sort of doubt that, due to the lack of a complex hilt, but I've never handled one before.

Meyer depicts some rapiers without complex hilts as does Marozzo, Frederico Ghisliero, and Di Grassi.

[Michael Olsen]

I think their wasters look pretty good. New Stirling Arms doesn't really have pictures of their blades either. But the complexity in the craftsmanship matches NSA as does the ergonomics, and their rapier crosses are even narrower than NSA's. The crosses here are no wider than the handle which matches what we see on actual swords. Their rapier features a metal pommel cap which should provide plenty of balance. I not sure where you are seeing poor craftsmanship.

I agree - they seem to have at least 3 pictures up for each of their "big" projects.

The one element of their designs that troubles me, especially on their first longsword, is that the blades look very thin. It might just be the pictures, but it looks a little off.

Meyer depicts some rapiers without complex hilts as does Marozzo, Frederico Ghisliero, and Di Grassi.

I can't speak to Di Grassi, Marozzo, or Ghisliero, but in which plate of Meyer do you consider Rappier shown without a complex hilt? In every image I've seen they are shown with at least a ring-guard on the inside or outside of the cross, and are frequently pictured with ring-guard and a knuckle bow.

Best,

Michael

[Jeff Hansen]

Their dussack's look ok, but the grain of the wood isn't in line with the shape of the weapon. If it wasn't so thick I'd think it would break in the middle.

I'm an experienced woodworker and have been making all my own wasters and a few for friends since I got into ARMA about 7 yrs ago. I don't see any problem with the grain of the dussack. What looks like the grain cossing the middle of the blade is just the result of cutting a straight piece of lumber out of a curved piece of wood. I don't see any serious problems with their construction on any of the pieces on their site. I agree that the blade looks a touch narrower than ussual but depending on thickness that shouldn't have much effect on durability. I also think they look pretty nice with the different woods and all.

That said, I don't think anyone can compete with the standard NSA has set for handling without some sort of weight in the pommel. Particularly since I don't see any taper in the blade I'm guessing that they handle about like the old wooden weapons wasters (like swinging a fence post), however, I haven't handled them so that is purely conjecture.

Probably not a complete waste of money, but I wouldn't buy one without handling a sample first.

[Mike Cartier]

Rappier is spelled that way in Meyer, its a good way to differentiiate it from the true rapier

Arms of Duistinction is kevin Mauer a former (as of last week ) ARMA member, he made most of our Dusacks, has made a bunch of longswords and rappiers for our group as well as for other ARMA members around the country. They are top quality IMHO, second only to NSA, but more customized.

Kevin knows Meyer very well and even translates directly from the German for the 1560 and 1570 books. kevin has even taught classes on halberd for us from time to time.

i haven't broken any of the dusacks yet and i have the old generations before he workd out better methods. good solid work.

[David Kite]

Well alrighty.

I stand corrected.

David Kite
ARMA in IN